PMO defends Manmohan Singh, says India has made remarkable progress in last 10 years

New Delhi: Rubbishing the claims made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday said ‘India has progressed in the last 10 years that has never happened in any other democracy’.

Pankaj Pachauri, Communications Adviser to the Prime Minister, said that the present government at the Centre has fought against poverty like no other government has done. The country has achieved a remarkable progress in road infrastructure and job sectors, added Pachauri.

Baru, a senior editor and PM's Media Adviser between 2004 and 2008, in the book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister--The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh’ quoted the Prime Minister as having told him that there cannot be two centers of power.

"That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power. The government is answerable to the party," Singh told him.

On GDP growth, Pachauri said, "GDP has grown three times in the last 10 years. Minimum wages have also gone up three times. This shows the government is working continuously."

However, he lamented that the information is not reflected in the media. "The information is not reaching the people because the media's priority is different," he said.

Asked whether the Prime Minister will speak on the damaging claims made by Baru in his book, Pachauri said the PMO has already made a statement on the issue. Besides, the Prime Minister's family and Congress have also spoken, he said.

"The PMO has given statements about it not once but twice. The Prime Minister’s family has made its viewpoints public. The party Prime Minister belongs to and is heading the government on whose behalf made very long and considered statements about it. I do not think there is anything new to say about it," he said.

Pachauri also added that in the last five years, there was not much scope for the Prime Minister to speak in Parliament.